"PARTING THOUGHTS"
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 21, 2020
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
2 Corinthians 13:11 (ESV)
Thirty-nine years ago this afternoon, at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Odenton, Maryland, my home pastor, Dan Quiram, placed his hands on my head and spoke these words: "Brother Arthur, I now commit to you the holy office of the Word and the Sacraments. I ordain and consecrate you a minister of Christ's holy Church, by the authority of the Church through the imposition of my hands, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Lord pour out upon you His Holy Spirit for the office and work committed to you by the call, that you may be a faithful dispenser of the means of grace. Amen." Thus began a journey that has brought me to three congregations in three different states, a couple of district offices in two different districts, several auxiliary positions in the Church, and four synodical conventions--a journey that is reaching its conclusion today. What does one say on such an occasion?
For guidance I started looking through the final greetings of the New Testament letters and finally settled on this text--the Apostle Paul's last words to the church at Corinth. Granted, Paul faced many more challenges in his ministry among the Corinthians than I have in mine either here or anywhere else. He had established the congregation with the help of Titus and afterwards wrote two letters to them, one admonishing them for various self-inflicted problems and the other sympathizing with them in their weaknesses, comparing them with his own, and assuring them of God's love and presence with them all. His final words to this congregation are words of peace and confidence. As we come to the end of a twenty-four year congregation/pastor relationship, I thought these words of Paul would be appropriate.
Paul says to the Corinthian parishioners: "Rejoice." I'm not going to be presumptuous enough to think that my departure has you mourning so badly that I need to cheer you up but, at the same time, I hope you're not rejoicing today because I'm finally leaving! The point that I am making here is the same one that Paul makes: No matter the circumstances, the Christian always has reason to rejoice. In another of his letters the apostle writes: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). Life has its ups and downs, relationships come and go, and through it all, we rejoice. We even rejoice at the funeral of one who has died in the faith. We rejoice in the forgiveness of our sins--in the New Life in Christ that is ours in Baptism--in the salvation from sin and death that our Savior has purchased for us with His own blood. All of these precious gifts of the Gospel are given to us freely by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace.
We rejoice today, even as we part ways, because we know that the Church is not my Church or your Church; it is Christ's Church. Pastors and parishioners come and go, congregations are established and closed, but the Church established by Christ in the power of His Spirit will endure until He returns in glory to claim His bride and take her to His heavenly home. What matters is not who is standing in this pulpit or who is sitting these pews; what matters is that the truth of the Gospel of Christ is always proclaimed among you and is heard and believed and confessed. This is the "rock" upon which Christ has built His Church--the Church of which He has promised: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). We are secure--not because of who our pastor is or what congregation we belong to, nor because of the fellow believers who we love and worship with. Our security rests in Christ Himself--the One who has redeemed us with His own blood and has sealed us with His Holy Spirit--the One who has ascended to His throne on high and will return in glory to claim us as His own and to take us to be with Him in perfect joy forever. In the meantime we rejoice in His promise: "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
The apostle continues with instructions for the Corinthian congregation. These instructions are certainly appropriate for any Christian congregation. They fall into two general categories. The first has to do with harmony in the congregation: "Aim for restoration, . . . agree with one another, live in peace." Paul probably felt constrained to write this because of the deep divisions within the Corinthian congregation that he addressed in his first letter to them when he wrote: "It has been reported to me . . . that there is quarreling among you" (1 Corinthians 1:11). I have to say that, having dealt with many congregations as a circuit visitor and a district vice president, I have always been thankful for the harmony that we have enjoyed here at Bethel. No, we don't always agree on everything, but we express our disagreements in a Christian manner, "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). A big part of that, oddly enough, is that we have the unique ability to laugh at ourselves. When I look at the lengths to which our Lord was willing to go in order to redeem rebellious sinners like us, and how He forgives us again and again for the same old sins, the Savior's message comes through to me loud and clear: Don't take yourself too seriously. You're a sinner, and in this life you always will be a sinner, but I love you anyway.
The other instruction that Paul gives in his final words to the Corinthians has to do with Christian care: "Comfort one another," he says. No matter how successful and healthy and contented we may appear to be, we all need comfort. We have a lot of hurts, some of them out in the open and known to all and some of them hidden and known only to us. We have these hurts because we are infected with sin, and everything less than perfect in our lives is a result of our sin. To care for one another in our physical and material needs goes without saying. But what about the spiritual need that we all have--the need that causes all of the other needs? I'm talking about the need generated by our sin. When fellow Christians apologize to you for something or unburden themselves to you with their guilt, don't simply say that it's okay or that it's no big deal. Forgive them in the name of Christ. That is what you have been called and empowered to do. No greater care can be given to a brother or sister burdened with sin and guilt than to remind that brother or sister that he or she is forgiven in the wounds of Jesus.
The apostle's last word to the Corinthian congregation is this blessing: "The God of love and peace will be with you." These words are mine also to you today. I won't be here next Sunday or the Sunday after that, but "the God of love and peace will be with you" forever. In this uncertain world no one here can say for sure that he or she will be anywhere next week, but "the God of love and peace," who has shown His love and established peace in the blood-stained cross and empty tomb of Jesus, will be with you always to comfort and encourage you and to use you to comfort and encourage one another and others, all to His glory and for spread of His kingdom of grace.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.